Twitter for Business Building and Lead Generation (or as I prefer to call it, relationship building) – Part 2 of 2, Communicating with Your Followers

admin    Twitter     Building, business, call, Communicating, Followers, Generation, Lead, Part, Prefer, Relationship, Twitter

Twitter for Business Building and Lead Generation (or as I prefer to call it, relationship building) – Part 2 of 2, Communicating with Your Followers

As a business building tool for your relationship based business (is there really any other kind?) Twitter can be used to introduce yourself to people with shared personal and business interests, get into a “conversation” with them and ideally build a relationship with them as any combination of client, team member and friend.

As mentioned in the first article in this series regarding building your list of whom you’re following and your followers, there are automated ways to communicate with everyone, that there are pros and cons to automated tools, and they can always be augmented with manual (i.e. real interaction).

Direct Message Box

When someone is nice enough to follow you in twitter, even if in response to you following them, basic good manners suggest you thank them.  So please do respond to them.  If you are using automated means to build your lists, you will quickly be overwhelmed with too many messages to personally respond to.  This is when automated tools are helpful.  All of the twitter tools mentioned in the first article, Tweetspinner, Twello, and Social Oomph (my favorite) as well as many others will work.  No matter the tool you choose, they will each have a tool to automate your responses to your direct messages.  Part of setting up the automation in any of these tools, is preparing a list of 140 character responses, thanking those that follow you. The set up and configuration of your list might vary from site to site, but the idea is the same for every tool. In your 140 character messages, remember that folks are following you because you’ve expressed interest in what they are up to.  Continue that interest in your responses.  Remember, you are at the very beginning of building a relationship with them.  Don’t try to sell your opportunity too soon.  That said, feel free to include shortened links to your business sites (bit.ly will help here, shortening your links so you can make the best use of your 140 characters) in a context of shared interest, rather than premature, hard selling.

As you are thanking others for following you, you will receive many thank you messages as well. This is where the relationship building continues.  Reach out to those thank you notes that most resonate with you.  Ask them how they are using Twitter to market their businesses.  Offer an introductory free consultation.  Send them a complementary bit of content.  Check in with them occasionally to see how they are.  You know, just like you would with a friend.

Yea! Your list is building nicely, you’re seeing more traffic to your website, your conversion rate from Twitter is improving nicely.  Now your inbox is swamped.  These same tools will help you quickly purge your direct message box.

Tweeting

Because the purpose of social networks in general and Tweeting in particular, this is where the relationship building really begins.  Regular tweets are the ticket.  Ideally, several times a day.  Again, the tools listed above can automate this process as well with the usual pros/cons. Automated tools have a similar spinning message feature mentioned in the Direct Message section. This spinning messages will be in a similar format of a list of 140 character messages. To be compliant with Twitter rules (and thus keeping your account open) the ratio of marketing tweets to non-marketing is about 1:4.  Marketing tweets would include those that link back to your business sites, blogs, videos, etc.  You also want to build a long list of tweets, as Twitter doesn’t take kindly to excessive repetition of messages.  I would started with a list of 20 tweets, with a 1:4 ratio of marketing to to non-marketing tweets, and build your list 20 tweets a day and reload your list into whatever tool you’re using.  Another part of automating your tweets is to set up scheduling and frequency of your tweets.

As with everything discussed so far, just because you automate a fair amount of your Twitter marketing efforts, you and your followers will be well served with manual tweets from you.  Read what other people are tweeting about.  If someone shares something interesting to you, share the love and re-tweet.  Remember, this is a social medium.  So go be social!

Next Steps

Now that you have the basics of building your list of followers by following those with similar interests as you and building relationships with that list using a combination of automated tools and good old fashioned manual effort, you can start experimenting with marketing your business on Twitter.  As you become more comfortable with the tools, you will naturally progress to fine tuning your marketing message to better coordinate with your other marketing platforms and campaigns.

So go forth, get out there and introduce yourself to people, share your information, build the relationships and build your business and have a great time doing it.

From Social Media Network To Business Relationship, How To Start?

admin    Social Media     business, From, Media, Network, Relationship, Social, Start

In social media network (SMN) site, you get to know someone you think they will be your business partners. First of all, you profile and experience must be well prepared in SMN site. If you could get the recommendations from your working or business partners, that’s nice. It makes you more positive and let other people feel more confident when communicate with you. Secondly you have to do, searching the keywords, e.g Corporate Gifts, “e-Books”, e-Commerce Development”, and etc. If the location is crucial, you should also input the location name into keyword box.  After obtained the search result, you have 3 methods to link with them:
1.Leave them the message directly and state your reason of contact
2.Get someone you know already in the SMN site who can introduce you to the target
3.List what you are buying or selling on SMN site. Let the other people contact you

Contact and Send the Message
I would suggest first 2 methods because you need to contact the potential clients proactively and show your sincerity of doing business with them. The following example is the message you write to the target:

Dear Mr. ABC,

How are you?

This is Mr. Johnson Harry from ABC<a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=http://company.easytrade.com/kf/home_en.asp?showroomid=1&companyid=1>Crystal Gifts</a> Ptv. Company. I come across your profile in the XXXX.com and would like to build up the business relationship with you. We are a<a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=http://www.crystal88.com/>crystal gift manufacturer</a>based in Hong Kong. We supply the wide range of crystal products to our clients in Europe and United States, e.g. wedding gifts, corporate gifts, desktop items, house decorations, and so on. Currently we are offering the big discount sale on our products. Most items are 50% off at its original price. Please see the our<a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=http://company.easytrade.com/kf/home_en.asp?showroomid=1&companyid=1>online showroom</a> in EasyTrade.com and ask for quote directly their. I will respond you within 24 hours. Thanks for your attention!  

Yours sincerely,

Johnson Harry

Follow Up
Send the message to them and wait for the response. If your target does not respond you within 2 weeks, he might not be interested in your products. However you should make it clear and send another gentle reminder. For example,
 
Dear Mr. ABC,
 
Following up my last message to you, are you interest in our products and big discount offer? If you have any special requirements or need additional services from us, please let me know and I will try my best to meet your requirements. Your early response is appreciate. Thanks!
 
Reegards,
 
John Harry

No matter you send the message to the target directly or post your offer on SMN site, you have to show your products online and the e-Commerce features with online catalog is highly recommended. 

Social Media, Relationship Marketing

admin    Social Media     Marketing, Media, Relationship, Social

It is always a great day when I find myself in a position where with a little of my time and energy I am able to have a profound impact on someone’s business and financial future. While many of you reading this have a profound respect and admiration for the impact that social media can have on your business, there are countless numbers that have not been so blessed.

On the other side of that coin, called networking, I tend to forget that there a large number of people that are not as blessed as I to live in an area where there are so many great opportunities to network in person. On any given day I am able to participate in local Rainmakers networking meetings that are packed with business professionals looking for strategic relationships.

For the benefit of those that do not live in Indiana, Rainmakers is a business networking organization that provides a platform for business professionals to be more and serve more. We view networking as a chance to find a relationship that will bring you a stream of business rather than a one-time sale. Our focus is on long-term strategic relationships.

Rainmakers is based on the idea of “givers gain”. Rather than passively passing leads, Rainmakers actively prospect for each other. By working with other Rainmakers we are able to offer our customers solutions that are larger in scope. We become strategic advisors to our current customers while at the same time we pick up additional customers and/or business contacts from other Rainmakers.

Rainmaker, being nearly 1500 members strong, is a great organization for building those strong relationships. However, think about the vast numbers of networkers that you are able to connect with vi the Internet and the numerous social media channels available to you at any time. With 32+ events around central Indiana during any given month, with up to 300 members present, that is an incredible opportunity for networking and building relationships.

Compare those numbers with the number of business professionals that I connect with on a daily basis via sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc and you begin to realize that at any given moment via the Internet you may be connecting with thousands of prospects. Having just finished a conversation on this subject with a fellow Rainmaker, I felt compelled to recap some of that conversation here.

Again as many of you may have heard me say in the past, social media and sites like Facebook are not a magic bullet. If you can’t network in person, won’t take the time to build relationships with those that you connect with and try to sell everyone that you meet, before understanding their needs and desires, you will not experience success via social media. This applies to all businesses. The thing that strikes me as being so odd is that I have never seen a business that could prosper without building relationships. However, Network Marketing (or Multi-Level Marketing) is one of the few industries that the business model focuses on this concept as the very foundation.

If you expect to experience prosperity in the Network Marketing Industry, it is so very important that you understand the need for personal development. Learn the following skills: Networking, Sales, Leadership, Communication (Listen More, Less Talking) and continue to improve throughout your career.

For any of you that have a background in sales you have heard the term, “The fortune is in the follow up”. The same applies to social media. If you go to anyone of the multitude of social media sites available, create an account, connect with a lot of people and then never follow up or touch base with them, they become nothing more than a list of cold contacts. Great you have created yourself a list of people that you can cold call (cold email). What do you think your odds will be of generating any business from that list?

Do NOT try to sell people on anything before you have taken the time to get to know them. Are there exceptions to this rule? Yes. There are times that you can create business from a very new contact. I will say that I am blessed to have had that happen more times that I can count, but in all cases it is because they started the conversation. There always will be, but as a general rule I do not try to sell someone before understanding something about them. Most importantly, I want to know if they have a need that I can fill for them.

Social Media and Network Marketing both will always be filled with those individuals that will try to sell you on the next big thing, before they even know your name. However, please do not let that discourage you from participating in either. Both have lot to offer and can be a tremendous boost to your business and financial future if you are willing to spend the time. Add value to people, by providing them with information, resources, support, or just a friendly ear to listen. The same rules apply, “help enough other people get what they want and you will get everything you want and more”.

If you are blessed enough to live in an area where you can take advantage of a networking group such as Rainmakers, take every opportunity to do so, but make sure to keep social media as a integral part of your Networking/Marketing Plan. Make 2009 your best year yet!

Bangladesh and India: Will the Dams “Damage “the Relationship?

admin    Google's Nexus One     Bangladesh, Damage, Dams, India, Relationship

Environmentalists  and  academics  called  for  a  greater  movement  at  national  and international  levels  to resist  what they  said “India’s conspiracy” to  construct  Tipaimukh dam  without  sharing  information  with  Bangladesh. They also  slammed  the  government’s  role  in  dealing   with  India  about  water  issues.  India  has  neither  ensured  water  flow  in  the  Ganges  as  per  the  Ganges  Treaty  nor  shared information  about Tipaimukh  Dam, which is  sheer  violation of the treaty.( The Daily Star,July08,2009).

Remonstrance over the Farakka Barrage , first in 1965 , led to Indo-Pak war, but in 1975, Bangladesh in good faith , agreed to allow its friend, India to “ test-run “ its feeder canal for fourteen days only. India guaranteed Bangladesh that actual operation will commence after an agreement is signed detailing terms of operation and share of water. Rest is a history of non-compliance from India, resulting in desertification of many rivers inside Bangladesh. Next is India’s move to construct the Tipaimukh Dam ignoring strong protest from Manipur, as well as Bangladesh as it threatens the North-East section part of the Country. Isn’t both, faith and friendship, being compromised?

So why is India so obsessed with its Dam projects? In April 2001 David Barsamian,Director of Alternative Radio in Boulder, Colorado interviewed Arundhati Roy and here is what she said, “the myth of big dams is something that’s sold to us from the time we’re three years old in every school textbook. Nehru said, “Dams are the temples of modern India”, the dam will serve you breakfast in bed, it will get your daughter married and cure your jaundice. People have to understand that they’re just monuments to political corruption, and they derive from very undemocratic political institutions. You just centralize natural resources, snatch them away from people, and then you decide who you’re going to give them to. When I was writing “The Greater Common Good,” what shocked me more than the figures that do exist are the figures that don’t exist. The Indian government does not have any estimate of how many people have been displaced by big dams. The reason that there aren’t these figures is because most of the people that are displaced are again the non-people, the Adivasis and the Dalits. India doesn’t mow down its people. It doesn’t kill people who are refusing to move. It just waits it out. It continues to do what it has to do and ignores the consequences. Because of the caste system, because of the fact that there is no social link between those who make the decisions and those who suffer the decisions, it just goes ahead and does what it wants. The people also assume that this is their lot, their karma, what was written. It’s quite an efficient way of doing things. Therefore, India has a very good reputation in the world as a democracy, as a government that cares, that has just got too much on its hands, whereas, in fact, it’s actually creating the problems.”- (www.progressive.org). The Book is an eye-opener for Citizens to understand the system in India ; its corruption, the obnoxious nexus with World Bank that offers the funds and the International Community that implements the projects robbing the poor to pay the rich. Tipaimukh Dam will be no exception to this system.

Now I wish to present an example of how arrogant attitude of “Government” over demands of the “Governed” breeds violence and terrorism. Water First by Kunta Lahiri-Dutt and Robert J.Wasson has a chapter on The Regional Politics of Water Sharing written by Douglas Hill.

In 1976 Central Government of India passed a ruling settling how much water should be available to each state. Punjab disagreed and filed a case in the Supreme Court challenging its validity. Meanwile construction of 112 km Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal began in 1982 to divert waters to farmers in Rajasthan and southern Harayana(khurana2006). Construction was immediately met with opposition from Punjab unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Shriomani Akali Dal(SAD). The SAD section of protest eventually reverted to violent agitation and terrorism culminating in the events of 0peration Blue Star at Amritsar, 1984(where Indira Gandhi ordered the killing of hundreds of Sikh separists) and arguably resulted in her assassination in 0ctober. New Prime Minister Rajib Gandhi and Akali Dal leader Harcharan Singh Longowal met in 1985, set up a tribunal under Justice Eradi to re-examine appropriate allocations for Rajasthan,Punjab and Haryana. The findings of this tribunal was disputed by Punjab in 1987 on grounds that sufficient water to cover the recommended allocation was not available.Violence caused the closure of this tribunal in 1988 and construction of the Punjab section of SYL canal ceased in 1990. Again tribunal re-opened in 1997 and ruling passed in favour of Harayana in 2004. This triggered political crisis and the Punjab Government passed a Bill that nullified all previous agreements related to sharing of the Ravi and Beas (khurana2006): -(Google.com) Did India learn any lesson from this?

Governments works intricately through “Mama” system, to do their dirty work. Chetan Bagat in his book “The 3 Mistakes in My life” describes “Mama”, a local tout but ambitious to climb up the ladder of” Power”. He asks his political Guru to get him an election ticket. The Guru informs Mama that ambitious people like him are required in the party and since he is good and committed, he (Mama) to get to the next top level, needs to do work that gets him noticed. India has such “Mamas” for operations.

“Mamas”, on behalf of India, bribed officials to make temporary settlement through promises that 10-12% of the electricity will be received free of cost and the rest of it will be given to NEEPCO for distribution to other states. Will other states not demand the same deal? Besides the “Citizens Concern for Dam and Development” (CCDD) and Environmentalists don’t care about this temporary settlement and are continuing with the protest and if the Marxists and Maoist insurgents joins there is great possibility that protests could turn to violent agitation. How will India contain this violence? What would be the world’s reaction to this? Will Bangladesh be pressurized to facilitate India?

And now, Bangladesh. India without moral and military support from the then USSR (Russia) couldn’t have assisted Bangladesh in the war of Liberation. During liberation India was selectively aiding groups from Awami League (Mama Factor) though other political groups worked in tandem to achieve the common goal of Independence. Former Foreign secretary,Late Mr.J.N.Dixit in his comments to the Foreign Affairs Committee, said “We helped in the liberation of Bangladesh in mutual interest, it was not a favor. He also said that 90% of the problems could be resolved if Bangladesh exported gas to India. India subsequently made a list of other items to demand from Bangladesh. Friendship is being tested harshly.

Additionally, (1) India is ignoring clauses 2 and 3 of the Dublin Principles, 1992. Clause 2, stipulates Water Development and Management should be based on a participatory approach involving all users, planners and policy makers and Clause 3 stipulates that women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water. (2) India never agreed to the proposal to discuss with Nepal to solve the problems of Bangladesh due to Farakka Barrage. Why is India acting so mysteriously ?

Will the Bangladesh Parliament team that has been invited to visit Manipur be able to find solutions? The answer is a straight NO. In the absence of full details from India and the Funding Agency and subsequent analysis by local experts by all three states, free from political influence, the team wouldn’t be able to distinguish any controversial points. Rather there is danger that the name of Bangladesh will be mis-utilized politically to pressurize Manipur and Mizoram.

What then is the solution? Following is my four step solutions: (1) Barrister Harun ur Rashid’s suggests the construction of Ganges Barrage at Pangsha (90 miles west of Dhaka) to offset the adverse effects of Farraka Barrage. (Ref: Daily Star, May 31, 2008). It was first conceived in 1963 and next in 1984 and after feasibility report of 1997 the Joint River Commission approved it. Immediate steps must be made to implement this and next Bangladesh experts should undertake another study to construct another similar Barrage in the Sylhet region to offset the Tipaimukh Dam effect. Only after an agreement is made with India for construction of these two Barrages, should our Government think to cooperate with India. (2) Dr.Aiun Nishat suggests that positive politics, mutual understanding and the Prime Ministers of both India and Bangladesh should be involved. (Ref: NewAge Xtra June 12,2009). (3) From all three states, Women’s participation must be ensured and their opinions recorded and taken into consideration. (4) I fully endorse the suggestions, the Non-resident Bangladeshis in Los Angeles, have forwarded to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina through the Consul General; they recommended that a team comprising of five countries be formed: Bangladesh, India, China, Nepal and Myanmar to find the right solution(.Ref: zshare.net/audio/616901121db0d245/Huda reading memorandum sent to Sheikh Hasina).

At the sidelines of NAM Conference, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has confirmed to Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina that India won’t take any steps that might affect ties. Earlier in an exclusive interview Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh had stated “It is my sincere belief that a strong and prosperous Bangladesh is in India’s fundamental interest.”(Ref: Daily Star, Nov.15,2005). Let the Honorable Prime Minister prove his intentions. It would be great if Sonia Gandhi also takes a keen interest and joins Dr.Singh in this venture. I am confident that Bangladesh and India Relations will greatly improve.